In The Grip Of The World
by xxIAmTheSkyxx
Summary: Three years have passed, but Fiore is still firmly in the grip of the devastation that had come down upon them back then. While the kingdom struggles to get back on its feet, a new threat emerges, unbeknownst to anyone...so now, history is doomed to repeat itself through seemingly impossible means. Sequel to In The Shadow Of Summer; rated T for violence and language. SPOILER ALERT.


_**NOTE: STOP READING RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PREVIOUS ENTRY**_** In The Shadow Of Summer****.**_** THIS ENTIRE STORY IS A MASSIVE SPOILER TO THE ENTIRE PREVIOUS**_**_ ENTRY, WHICH IS _ALSO_ CHOCK-FULL OF SPOILERS_****.**_** IF YOU STILL WANT TO FOLLOW THIS STORY, READ THE PREVIOUS ENTRY FIRST.**__  
><em>

_Sorry. I couldn't. I couldn't stay away from this story any longer than I have. It's been killing me. I have to relieve myself of some of that agony…so here it is. The first entry into the sequel to my first-ever and popular Fairy Tail story, _In The Shadow Of Summer_._

_Okay, that's out of the way. Tally-ho we go._

_**AGAIN, EVERYTHING FROM HERE ON IS ONE HUGE SPOILER. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING, ALL YOU NEWCOMERS.**_

_…__Oh, and Merry Christmas!_

**Introduction: In The Grip Of The World**

_You are nothing._

_Smoke above. Fire below._

_You will suffer in-between._

_For upsetting the balance._

_You, human, the one that has served as host to Life and Death, shall face your fate._

_Relinquish the payment that is due. Accept the judgment you deserve._

_You will have no rest._

_For you have disrupted me._

* * *

><p>I woke up screaming again.<p>

Sweat beaded my brow, and my chest threatened to explode. I breathed heavily in exertion as I bolted upright into a sitting position, ignoring the agonizing aches and pains all over my body. When I had gathered enough sense to realize that it was still dark, the night silent save for the chirping of crickets and hooting of owls, and empty aside from the trees of the forest and the stars of the skies twinkling innocently in the vast canvas of black, I exhaled sharply and grasped my chest tightly—immediately my palm was soaked in blood. I could still feel the wound. It was the only one that just refused to disappear. It was a reminder—a cruel reminder of all the hell that I was paying for now.

"Again with that dream…and that voice…" I growled to myself, gritting my teeth in frustration as I narrowed my eyes into a glower at nothing. "Goddamn it…I didn't ask for _this_…!"

Wind gusted through the trees surrounding me, cutting right through my clothes and chilling me right down to the bone. It ruffled my hair and stung my eyes, forcing them shut. I turned my glare to the skies once the winds subsided somewhat, overly tempted to shout to the heavens and curse my luck, but I kept my mouth shut. The hand I was gripping my heart with dropped to my side as my other hand rose and took hold of my forehead in an attempt to ease the throbbing.

"I know I deserve this, okay?" I mumbled, massaging my temples. "But I'm not asking for much here. I just want to rest. That's all…just that one thing."

I knew it was fruitless, but I couldn't help asking anyway. I was being punished for my crimes. That much was fact. And I'd told myself that I'd take on the consequences, no matter how grueling. That was also fact. Asking for some leeway after jumping into something that I'd known was not going to be merciful in any way would have been just redundant.

But I was getting seriously tired. I hadn't expected this. I hadn't expected to be _here_ again. I wasn't even sure how it had happened—one moment I was gone, but then…just like that, I was back. And the world was now holding me to my words. Let that be a warning to you to watch what comes out of your mouth. You never know who—or what—is listening.

"It's been like this for three years already…" I said to myself. "About a billion more to go."

_…Looks like someone's in a bad mood._

A tick went in my forehead, and I scoffed at the sound of the new voice. "Great, it's you," I grumbled. "Just drop it on me; what horrible thing will happen to me now?"

_Well, it's…something unprecedented. That time—it's drawing near again, in mere hours._

My heart sunk to the soles of my feet. I hadn't been ready for that. "Already?" I whispered, my chest tight in panic. "That can't be—it's too soon for that to—"

_**He speaks the truth.**_ A second voice. _**So rest yourself while you still can.**_

My jaw automatically tightened at the casual suggestion. _"Rest", it says_,I thought angrily. _Like hell I'm able to actually rest anymore._

"Yeah, sure," I griped aloud as I laid back down slowly, trying to fend off the impending dread. "Now let's think about who got me into this mess in the first place."

_**What; do you want me to give some kind of an excuse?**_

"At least be grateful that I felt sorry enough for you to let you stick around at all." I groaned. "Know what; just forget it. It doesn't matter." I paused for a minute before continuing, "So…how long this time?"

_That… _He hesitated in a way that made me think _oh crap _as he finished his thought with,_ It's odd, but…it's not entirely clear._

I bit my lip. That wasn't a good sign. "What does that mean? Doesn't this usually last only for a set number of days? That's the way it's been up until now."

_**Normally, yes. However, we don't know how long this phase will last…but it will definitely be longer than your previous phases.**_

I pursed my lips. "Just perfect…"

_**Try to look on the bright side of this. We can at least tell you that you won't be headed to 'that' place.**_

Well…that made feel the tiniest bit better about this bad news. "So…it's anywhere but there, huh? Nothing specific?"

_Unfortunately…for you, at least._

I exhaled sharply as I tried to keep my resurging impatience in check. "Seriously, would it really kill you to stop being an ass for at least five minutes?"

_**It's not like that ingrate can help it**_, it grumbled. _**If you've forgotten, he **_**was**_** born from your soul, boy.**_

"Oh, yeah; it was _totally_ all my fault. The idiot that possessed me and ripped out most of my soul and created this guy _embodying_ the term 'complete jerk'—_on purpose_, let me remind you—after forcing me to murder millions of people has no responsibility for him. Great. I guess logic flat-out died in the last three years." I scoffed and rolled onto my side with some difficulty, being stiff from my body's constant soreness. "You're both assholes. Now shut up and let me get some of this thing called _rest_ before then, if you don't mind."

Then I shut my eyes, bracing myself for the incoming wave of pain as my still-fresh scars rapidly healed in preparation for my next phase.

* * *

><p>I'm guessing some of you are late to the party. Trust me; you didn't miss much.<p>

…Unless you actually wanted to see me and my friends get our minds utterly screwed over and our asses completely kicked by Life and Death itself and wanted to see me dead, or you're just sadistic like that, or severely wanted a case of utter depression or something. Then I'd say that you've missed a lot.

Except I'm not dead. Not anymore, anyway.

…Yeah, it's a long story, but I'll just say that I'm being punished because of guilt by association. Let's go with that.

In any case, what you saw right there was just a small (and peaceful) glimpse of what my "life" has been like for the past three years, and will continue to be like for a long time. Long story short, about three years ago I got possessed by some malevolent entity, got tortured and abused a lot (in more ways than one) by said entity, got skewered in the heart, and survived it. Initially. Then some other shenanigans with the personifications of Life and Death happened…then I died. Then I came back…somehow…only to be tortured again.

Yeah, my entire existence has been nothing but a growing of happy sunshine and rainbows since then. Don't bother saying you're jealous. 'Cause I know you're not.

Now, there's a good reason I stopped where I did—it's because I don't want to talk about what happens during those "phases". To be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself—I'm sort of half-blanked out during them—but I know for sure that it's something pretty unpleasant, judging by the new scars on my body and horrified looks my way that I'm left with every time it's over. If you want details, you're not getting them from me. I just…yeah, no.

…You might have noticed that I said "new scars", not "more scars"…which probably would make more sense if I wasn't in a situation like mine, but that's not what I'm getting at here. The reason I say that is because once I get those "new" scars, they _stay _new—as in, they stay fresh and don't heal at all—until my next phase comes around. And trust me; it hurts like hell. It's the little nicks that sting the most.

And I don't know if I'm grateful for this or not, but remember when I said that I got skewered in the heart and initially survived before dying to it? Yeah, that knife wound never goes away, no matter how many of these phases I go through. It's really hard walking around with a gaping wound in your chest that most normal people would die of because, y'know, it hurts a lot. (Plus you look like a freaking nutcase dripping blood from your chest everywhere you go.) The bleeding never stops, the hole in my heart perpetually stays open, and I have to deal with the pain every damn day (I mean, I'm kind of getting used to the constant pain by this point, but that doesn't mean I have to like it). I would probably mind these phases less if it meant my heart got healed in the same process as my scars, but no; of course I couldn't get off that easy. 'Cause Life is an ass, and I hate his guts.

Oh, yeah; forgot to mention that—those personifications of Life and Death that I mentioned earlier happen to hang around in my heart. Yeah, in the damaged one. (I don't know how that works, either.) It's an even longer story how they ended up in there, but all you need to know is that they're both enormous pricks, I'm eternally stuck with them, and I hate them both. Especially Life—even though the reason I was even in this situation was mostly Death's fault. Life was the one that let it happen. So yeah; screw him.

With all this going on, it's easy for someone to say something like, "Man, that sucks for you" or "You have my condolences" or something else that invokes sympathy. And I would tell them to save that sympathy, 'cause I neither want nor need it. Sympathy wasn't going to make my punishment any easier to deal with.

…So, while I'm telling you all this, what's going on behind the scenes? I'll be honest with you—I have no clue. I told you; I'm in the middle of one of my phases right now, and I don't know specifically what happens during them. And to be frank, I don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss, guys. Ignorance. Is. _Bliss_. Take my word for it.

Anyway, this is all that I feel I can say on my predicament without crossing some lines. Any more of that and…man, I don't even want to think about what'll happen then.

I'm just gonna hope that once this phase is over, I'll be left with fewer scars than last time.

* * *

><p><em>Well…yeah. That's my decision.<em>

_(…Don't kill me, please. It's Christmas.)_

_Thank you for reading, you guys! How do you like it? Anything I can improve on? Any random thoughts? Please let me know!_

_Whoo, it feels awesome to be back in this series (can I call it a series even with only two entries?), no matter how much the first entry completely tortured me with how dark it was. I'm a sadomasochistic writer; I really am. ^^; I know this one is super short (and one-of-a-kind, so relax), but the upcoming chapters will be longer; I promise. I'm still working out the kinks in the plot. ;)_

_And if you can review, that would be amazing of you to do. Reviews, good or bad, give me the motivation I need to continue writing. That's what got me through the last story—and believe me; I probably would've chickened out halfway through if not for the reviews I got for that one. ^^;_

_Again, thank you so much for reading! The next update will happen…the next time my brain refuses to leave me alone on it. So it depends! See you then, everybody!_


End file.
